The Mets have signed right-hander Kevin Herget to a minor league contract, and announced that the reliever has been selected to the active roster. Left-hander Brandon Waddell was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding transaction.
Herget is back in Queens after a stint on the Braves roster that lasted a little under two months. The Mets claimed Herget away from the Brewers during the offseason, but he was designated for assignment in mid-May and found himself changing teams again on the waiver wire when Atlanta made a claim. Herget was DFA’ed again last weekend and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Braves’ Triple-A club (he had the right to choose free agency since Herget had previously been outrighted in his career). Amidst all these roster moves, Herget hasn’t spent much time on a big league mound this season, as he has made a single appearance apiece for the Mets and Braves at the MLB level.
The right-hander now has 26 appearances and 45 2/3 innings on his career resume in the majors, with a 4.53 ERA to show for his work with the Rays, Reds, and Brewers in addition to New York and Atlanta. The 34-year-old Herget has carved out a long career in pro ball since being a 39th-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2013 draft. Most of his career has been spent in the St. Louis farm system, and Herget has a 4.00 ERA over 505 2/3 career innings at the Triple-A level. This includes a 3.26 ERA, 21.6% strikeout rate, and eight percent walk rate over 30 1/3 combined innings with the Mets’ and Braves’ Triple-A affiliates in 2025.
It could be that Herget’s latest stint in the Show might be another cameo, as his addition gives the Mets a fresh arm over the short term. Waddell pitched 3 2/3 innings in yesterday’s 8-4 loss to the Reds and wouldn’t have been available for a few days anyway, so he can rest up and get some work in for Triple-A Syracuse. New York can’t recall Waddell back to the 26-man roster for at least 10 days, barring an injury to an active player.
Enough of this nonsense already. Commit to a move that means something… Either bring up the young arms or trade for someone who can actually lock it down out of the pen.
@Agent – Unfortunately teams are going to continue doing this as a loophole. They can only recall and demote a player 5 times in a year (thank you Rays & Dodgers).
Adding and designating a player avoids that 5 times limit plus avoid shaving to wait 15 days before recalling a demoted player.
Basically the Mets (and Dodgers again) have created a 41st roster spot that can be cycled through without any concern about option limit or 15 days. Wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see rule that you can’t DFA the same guy more than x times in the same year.
“Basically the Mets(and Dodgers again..41st roster spot”…
Even buying into your logic, the Mets(and Dodgers)are using the rules as they have been written and negotiated with the MLBPA.
Your statement makes it sound as though the Mets(and Dodgers)are using some magic loophole or formula not available to the 28 other teams.
The fact is, if a 41st roster is indeed being created, all teams should be(and are) doing this. If your team’s GM is not seeking any edge he can get, he should be fired.
@mlbfan – Where exactly did I say that they are breaking any rules? Merely that they are using this as a loophole to avoid having to wait 15 days to call someone else up. The Mets and Dodgers are already at 40 or so pitchers used on the season. Other teams have used it.
The observation was that I wouldn’t be surprised if they made rule to curb it. We’ve seen rules change when teams abused 10 day IL for pitchers, so they made it 15 days for pitchers. Or teams would call/demote guys numerous times (Rays) so they limited it to 5 per year. Or mound visits, or pickoffs, or defensive shifts.
I don’t see why they’d have to do anything to change that rule, though. It’s not like it’s actually helping the Mets right now. The bullpen is a dumpster fire right now.
@AgentF – Even if the RP isn’t “successful”, he’s eating up innings to save other arms or filling in when minor league arms aren’t available. That still helps the Mets.
I get your point, but my problem with this is mainly that eating innings isn’t really what the Mets need. Yesterday – Manaea goes 4 innings and gives up 1 run… enter the inning eaters who go 5 and give up 7. All teams need bullpen help, but this strategy, and the Mets have used more pitchers than anyone in baseball, isn’t one you’d expect out of a team with ambitions to win their division. Also, they haven’t even saved the arms of other guys. Meanwhile, guys who ARE ready in the minors are not getting called up. That’s why I think it’s “nonsense” to continue trying to shove the square peg through the circle hole.
AgentF: “Enough of this nonsense already.”
What makes it nonsense and who are you to judge? And what’s your damage from teams doing it?
When your GM has no idea how to construct a team, don’t expect a commitment to a thing unless the owner demands it.
But what about Jessie Chavez?
Kevin Herget just wishes he
had Jessie’s Girl!
Un-Hergetable. .
The lunacy is that no one is realizing that you are actually shorting yourself an effective reliever in Waddell for 15 days because he is unavailable for three. And you are putting a guy you dont want to use on the roster to do so.
Sometimes these geniuses outsmart themselve because they are so focused on the moves, not the results.
First, its only ten days, not 15. Butto’s return is imminent, possibly before Waddell’s three day unavailable period is up. And Blackburn isn’t far behind (like it or not). Let’s not overstate Waddell’s effectiveness – you’re judging him on a miniscule and invalid sample size. He was somewhat effective in his first two call-ups. But he’s still a marginal talent. Its only a matter of time before the league figures him out and starts shelling him. Because thats what happens in baseball all the time. Let’s also not overlook the possibility that part of the reason he was sent down is to tweak something, or continue to work on something new that failed to work yesterday when he did get hit hard.
Herget- isn’t that the random ex you run into at the dog park or feste and you can’t for the life of you remember how you know the lady or how it concluded
39th round pick? Impressive career honestly.
Kevin and Jimmy Herget aren’t related? Not the most common last name in the world.
No they are not. Sort of like Chuck Dobson and Pat Dobson back in the 70s.
Or current catchers Ivan and Jose Herrera
David Stearns, the King of penny pinching. Our bullpen blows every game. Am I the only one that sees this?
That Sterns is the king of penny pinching? Yes.
It’s amazing the big spending teams: Yankees,Mets,Braves,Dodgers are just signing and releasing so many relief pitchers this season. I find it hard to believe that there aren’t any bullpen arms with era’s under 3 or 4 available for trade or in the farm system. I understand team control and year manipulation but this is getting sad and ridiculous. Bring up some youngsters and see how they do
@Adirondacks Mets need to put McClean in the bullpen for this season, kind of like what the Whitesox did with Sale earlier in his career. The pen is the worst in baseball
This isn’t about team control or service time manipulation. Cohen has said that he’s not interesed in that if a player can help the team, and Stearns has said he thinks its important to give young players a shot – but he also won’t call up a player who is not ready unless there is little to no choice.
And for the record, the Mets don’t have any useful relief arms in AAA yet. There are a couple whose moments may arrive sometime next season.
geofft: For what record? Are we being recorded?
@geofft thats why they should bring up their top starting pitching prospects and put them in the pen. They can worry about their service time next year
It’s late now, but as a Mets fan myself, I’d rather they had brought up their prospects to start and move guys like Holmes and Montas to the pen – Holmes because he could potentially be the best BP injection available and is already on the roster, while Montas, because I don’t have a ton of faith in him maintaining the results. That way we could have at least analyzed what we really need to target ahead of the deadline in the way of starters and bullpen by working with the pieces we already have… not adding Herget or anyone similar. Wouldn’t have hurt any to limit Holmes’s innings, too. Our bullpen has been hot garbage lately, but our rotation isn’t going to scare anyone in the playoffs either.
That makes some sense conceptually. But in practice, the Mets don’t have a couple of prospects capable of pitching in the majors right now. They might have one in McLean, but its too soon to tell if he’s mastered AAA yet. His innings limit will probably get him only 9 more starts on the year
McLean is it. No other pitching prospects will likely make the team this season. For the bullpen woes, it’s all about acquiring arms through trade. It will be Sterns’ biggest challenge.
Sproat seems to have found something recently, he’s back in the discussion. I’d rather shorten up Sproat for the MLB bullpen and bring McLean up as a starter in August